National Lawyers Guild (NLG)

Profile

"Dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system” and “seek[s] to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers… who seek actively to eliminate racism; who work to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them; and who look upon the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.”

Funding

Donors and funding sources unavailable, reflecting a lack of transparency and accountability.

National Lawyers Guild (NLG) also maintains a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (NLGF) for tax deductible donations. NLG explains that the “primary role of the Foundation has been to support the sustainability of the NLG National Office through direct grants on an annual and as-needed bases.” In addition, the Foundation “serves as fiscal sponsor for NLG chapters and committees that do not have 501(c)(3) status.”

In 2016, NLGF had an income of $1.4 million and expenses of $3.7 million.

Activities

Describes itself as a “non-profit federation of lawyers, legal workers, and law students.”

NLG maintains a “Palestine Subcommittee” that “advocates for justice in Palestine, organizes delegations, provides legal support to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements, works to support Palestinian political prisoners, and works to implement Palestinian rights.”

Embraces a Marxist ideology. According to its “2014 Convention Resolution,” NLG is “committed to dismantling the capitalist economic system in our nation and replacing it with a genuine political and economic democracy that holds the promise of financially achieving economic and social equality for all the people of our nation.”

In January 2018, National Lawyers Guild was sued for discrimination by the Bibliotechnical Athenaeum after NLG refused an offer to place an advertisement in their Annual Banquet dinner journal “on the grounds that they ‘have a resolution barring us from accepting funds from Israeli organizations.’” The lawsuit is ongoing.

Political Advocacy

In October-November 2018, NLG held its “Annual Conference,” featuring a workshop titled “Killing Gaza: A Man-Made Humanitarian and Human Rights Disaster.” The workshop discussed the “ongoing Israeli massacres of 2018 during the Great March of Return, the illegality (multiple violations of international human rights & humanitarian law), and immorality, as well as of the possible avenues of redress – and their effectiveness in ending Israeli impunity. Emphasis on the role of the US in giving Israel carte blanche militarily, economically and diplomatically.”

In July 2018, NLG hosted a webinar drawing comparisons between the “building of border walls in Palestine and on the Mexico-U.S. border.” The webinar discussed the “continuous threat of state, corporate and military violence tying together these colonial and neo-colonial projects.”

In April 2018, NLG condemned the “Israeli military’s recent slaughter of unarmed civilians peacefully protesting in Gaza” during the violence on the Gaza border.” NLG further demanded an “end to the massive, uncritical diplomatic and financial support that the U.S. continues to provide Israel, enabling it to engage in ongoing gross violations of Palestinian human rights with impunity… Until the U.S. ends its ongoing financial and diplomatic support of Israel which allow the state to continue its deadly policies with impunity, the U.S. government will continue to be complicit in everything Israel does.” NLG ignored the violent nature of the protests, which included Molotov cocktails, arson, and attempts to breach the border fence with Israel.

In October 2017, NLG sponsored a conference titled “Parallel Liberation Struggles: Lessons in Resistance” that aimed to “commemorate the 100-year Palestinian resistance to Israel’s settler-colonial project and explore the similarities in violence used against Palestinians, African Americans, and Native Americans and their methods of resistance.”

In July 2015, Audrey Bomse, co-chair of the NLG Palestine Subcommittee, and Azadeh Shahshahani, then president of NLG, wrote an article accusing Israel of promoting a “narrative, which whitewashes and justifies the crimes by blaming the victims” regarding the 2014 Gaza War. Bomse further stated that “There is no question that Israel willfully caused wanton destruction, great suffering and serious injury to body and health.”

Together with CCR and Palestine Legal, sent a November 2014 letter to over 140 universities, defending mock-checkpoints and mock-eviction notices, and cautioning universities against “censoring” such activities on campus.

In August 2014, NLG, together with the Center for Constitutional Rights, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Arab Lawyers Union, and American Association of Jurists, sent a letter to Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Faatou Bensouda, urging her “to initiate an investigation of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli leaders and aided and abetted by U.S. officials in Gaza.” The letter claimed that, “By transferring financial assistance, weapons and other military aid to Israel, members of U.S. Congress, President Barak Obama, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have aided and abetted the commission of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity by Israeli officials and commanders in Gaza.”

On August 23, 2014, Azadeh N. Shahshahani, then President of the National Lawyers Guild, wrote an article published in The Huffington Post (“From Gaza to Ferguson: Exposing the Toolbox of Racist Repression”), accusing Israel of “collective punishment,” “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “land grabs,” using “imprisonment as a political tool,” and imposing “draconian conditions” on the residents of Gaza.

Sponsored a July 2014 demonstration in Miami, together with the Center for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Al Awada and others, at which protesters reportedly yelled, “We are Hamas!”; “We are Jihad!”; and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” meaning the elimination of Israel.

BDS Activities

In 2007, NLG passed a resolution to “participate in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement.”

NLG called for a boycott of Airbnb for “listing properties in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” thereby supporting “Israeli apartheid and land theft.”

NLG supports a campaign calling for “elected officials of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its municipalities to end contracts with Hewlett-Packard (HP) until the company ends its corporate complicity in the Israeli occupation of Palestine, U.S. deportations, and mass incarceration.”

Regularly partners with Center for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to send letters to lawmakers and university presidents against laws and policies that ban boycotts against Israel and Israeli academic institutions.

In March 2017, published an article criticizing anti-BDS laws and defending the right to participate in boycotts.

In October 2015, the South Florida Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, alongside Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Palestine Legal, and CAIR Florida, sent a letter to Florida State Senators urging them to withdraw a bill that “seeks to stifle this human rights movement by blacklisting companies that decide for ethical reasons to boycott Israel because of its human rights abuses.”

Partners

Regularly partners with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and together founded Palestine Legal (formerly known as Palestine Solidarity Legal Support), an NGO that is highly active in BDS campaigns, particularly on college and university campuses throughout the United States.

Accuses Israel of maintaining a “matrix of control” over the Palestinian population and enacting “laws that discriminate against [Palestinians], much as Black Americans had been treated during the Jim Crow era.”